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| Joined: | Wed Sep 7th, 2005 |
| Location: | Fredericksburg, Virginia USA |
| Posts: | 143 |
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Richard, thank you for clarifying your earlier post.
Your points are well taken, but I don't think there is a logical reply or really a valid opinion either way. You "could" take a baseball writer's approach (BTW I am a baseball writer) and use a comparative study of statistics to decipher a "win vs. loss ratio" and "victory vs. defeat based upon opposing troop numbers and resulting causalities", and then compare each units "stats", but (to me) that would be demeaning to their memory and their sacrifice.
I think that "ratings" as you refer to them (or historical opinions) are usually biased and based ultimately on geographical locations. Down here in VA, The Stonewall Brigade "walks on water" so to speak - but I am sure that other places up North favor the Irish or Iron Brigades etc. Therefore "overrated" is a very tricky term. "Overrated" by whom?
Personally, when I think about the men who fought in the Civil War (blue or gray) I am attracted to their courage and conviction. The idea of lining up on an open field and marching (in an organized fashion) towards a mile-wide wall of continuous musket fire and multiple batteries of cannon is absolutely insane. The very notion of that task goes far beyond any type of logical behavior or self-preservation. YET they did it. And that my friend is the definition of guts.
That is what makes all soldiers from the War Between the States worthy of our attention, study and preservation. So I say, overrate them all - because they all deserve it.